per cent. have ever been in the Yellow Stone Park. I also assert, that less than 30 per cent. of Ohioans, who travel in other States, have ever been through the picturesque region of the Hocking Valley and Southern Ohio.

In the modern way of traveling, that is on railroads, people can not see much of any thing, but little of many things. I do by no means despise traveling by railroads; it enables us to more readily obtain a general idea of the country through which we pass, than we could by traveling on foot or on horseback. Yet it has its drawback; people do not learn to make careful investigation which can only be made by proceeding slowly. An exact knowledge of home geography obtained by personal observation will greatly aid us to profit by the more rapid transit through the country. These last remarks are intended to place the following observations from the car window-in a proper light. They are general impressions which naturally follow in rapid succession.

We started on our journey, as already observed at 11:50 A. M. At Fulton, which we reached in about five minutes, we were delayed by an obstruction in the road, which was in the form of a fire-engine eng ged in extinguishing the fire of a burning frame building. The delay, however, was of a short duration; for at 12:15 P. M. we started, and reached Tusculum at 12:30. From the railroad, this place, which was so named by Mr. Joseph Longworth, does not present a very attractive appearance. (With but rare exceptions, the same is true of all that portion of Cincinnati which lies along the Ohio river.) The houses are mostly in a dilapidated condition, and the grounds are sadly neglected. Ornamental tree-planting is almost entirely unknown there; weeds and rubbish disfigure the occasionally neat habitations of man. The Hills of Tusculum, however, are a direct contrast to this; there cultivation and thrift is the rule, and ne lect the exception.

North and northeast of Tusculum we get a glimpse of the country. On the left of the road, as we proceed towards the cast, we have a chain of hills partly covered with forests, here and there a vineyard, and at the foot of these we observe some beautiful residences. On the right the broad valley of the Little Miami extends, showing unmistakable evidences of unexcelled fertility. Corn and wheat-fields present themselves to our eye. Here the denizens of Cincinnati come out in great numbers to escape the air and noise of city life.

The villages Sans Souri, Plainville, Lawrence and Terrace Park, all gems of beauty, are passed in rapid succession. The principal trees growing on the hills between these villages are oaks, of which the White oak predominates, and maples intermingled with some beeches, elms and Hackberry trees. In some localities the trees present a healthy appearance,

while more often, signs of decay, caused by vandalism, as girdling and burning, or by utilizing these woodlands, for pasturing purposes, are plainly visible.

The banks of the Little Miami are lined with a dense growth of poplars, willows and sycamores.

At Lawrence, a small village, the most striking feature may be said to be the great number of dead or dying Black Locusts. Worthy of notice are the fine orange hedges at or near this place. The same is true of Terrace Park.

We are still on the right of the Little Miami which constitutes here the boundary line between Hamilton and Clermont counties. On the left of the river lies the thriving little town of Milford.

At 1:4 P. M. we reached Camp Dennison, a small village consisting of but a few, mostly one-story high frame houses, and three minutes later we crossed the Little Miami at Miamiville, Clermont county. This place lies 17.3 miles northeast of Cincinnati, and 102.7 miles southwest of Columbus.

The principal crops in this neighborhood are wheat and barley. The ▾ clover fields were exceptionally fine. Here and there we noticed tobacco fields.

The woods here, which are few and generally poor, are used for pastures, hence it is not surprising to see so many stag-horned* trees.

The hills along here vary in height from about 100 to 150 feet from the base.

Having passed Epworth Heights, a noted Methodist camp-meeting ground, which, by the way, is beautifully located, we reached Loveland, not a very large but an exceedingly beautiful village, having many ornamental trees. The people in this place are said to be very enterprising. The small patches of woodland in the vicinity of Loveland, although they do not fill the requirements of systematic forestry, are in a better condition than the woodlands between here and Cincinnati.

At King's Bridge, which is 29.3 miles northeast of Cincinnati, and which we reached at 1:32 P. M., we observed boys wading through the river, while the debris on the banks indicated that in rainy seasons the Little Miami assumes, even here, quite respectable proportions.

Between King's Bridge and South Lebanon there is a fine oak grove on the slope of one of the hills; but the hills, which are denuded of trees, present a very lamentable condition, the sides being furrowed by deep

* Trees are said to be stag-horned or stag-headed when the ends of some of the branches die and appear among the living wood; in the Oak the dead branches are often bleached to whiteness, and bear a fanciful representation to the horns of a stag.

gulleys washed out by the rain. Here, surely, is room for improvement, and great need for an often repeated and protracted arbor day.

At 1:45 P. M. we reached Morrow, where we branch off on the Cincinnati and Muskingum Valley Railway. The country now assumes the level character. Every thing is either corn field, wheat field or pasture; no waste land of any kind. Of trees we see but little, and what we see tells the story of want of interest in forestry. Dead trees and dying trees are the rule; of artificial plantations there is no trace. Although now and then we pass a small grove of tolerably good looking trees, but none are protected from the inroads of cattle.

The roads in this county (Clinton) are in an exceptionally fine condition, some of them being lined with shade trees, of which the Silverleafed Maple is the most conspicuous. The old-fashioned worm or rail fence is still predominant, though board and wire fences are not un

common.

At 2:40 P. M. we arrived at Wilmington, the county seat of Clinton county. Here Mr. Weltz entered on the train. Directly east of Wilmington lies Tharand.*

Several miles west of Washington C. H., Fayette county, the effect. of the great hurricane which passed through this section of Ohio in 1885, and which caused the disastrous destruction at Washington C. H., are still visible. Most of the fine oaks and hickories and elms, which the hurricane tore up by the roots or broke off, or tore into shreds, have been cut and split into cord-wood, yet there are hundreds of them lying in the same position in which they were left by the hurricane. Such neglect to remove the prostrated wood is, to say the least, very imprudent, because such wood affords excellent breeding places for insects.

Let me introduce here Mr. T. J. Charlton, a man of weight and well educated. This gentleman presides over the Indiana Reform School for Boys, located at Plainville, Ind., and was on his way to Lancaster to visit the Ohio State Reform Farm near that place. Mr. Charlton and Dr. John B. Peaslee were old acquaintances, and had been renewing their acquaintance all the way from Cincinnati to this place. As we came in sight of Washington C. H. he turned to me, saying: "Do you know that Henry Ward Beecher was something of a forester?" Upon my answering this question in the negative, he said: "Yes, he was; he was a great lover of trees and a keen observer, and often drew a comparison between trees and men." Then pointing to some Lombardy poplars standing east of Washington C. H., he continued: "Those trees," he said, "are like an old bachelor, for they die first at the top and then grow ragged below. But

* This place was named by the State Forestry Bureau at the special request of its owner, vide« Third Annual Report of this Bureau, page 14.

in this Mr. Beecher was wrong, for this poplar first gets ragged below and then dies at the top, and herein," Mr. Charlton concluded, "lies, I think, the resemblance."

Washington C. H., which we reached at 3:25 P. M., lies 74 miles northeast of Cincinnati. The soil in this region is exceedingly fertile.*

To this great fertility must be ascribed the rapid decrease of the forest area in the county (Fayette). Besides statistics and a few scattered records there are some visible evidences of the grandeur of the ancient forests in this region. I refer to the huge stumps studding the fields and the solid old rail fences enclosing them. The few small groves remaining (which cover a little over 22,000 acres of the 205,105 acres owned in the county) seem to serve as a shade for cattle and nothing more.

As we approach the Scioto River the forests are more numerous and denser, and consist chiefly of oak and elm trees. The land, which is marshy and at places swampy, presents a wide and almost perfectly level plain. At 4:10 P. M. we passed the Scioto River, and two minutes later we were at Circleville, which is 110 miles from Cincinnati.

Pickaway county, of which Circleville is the county seat, is said to be one of the most fertile counties in the State, but part of the land needs draining. Here, too, the farmer plows around the old stumps of trees rather than remove them. About two or three miles east of Circleville we noticed a beautiful oak grove of perhaps 15 to 20 acres in extent, the trees being from 8 to 12 inches in diameter and correspondingly high.

Near Stoutsville we saw a large drain-tile factory, and we were told

*The above table which is compiled from the Statistics of Ohio will indicate the fertility of soil of this county as compared with others.

that there are several other large factories of the kind in the county, and yet that the demand exceeded the supply.

Amanda, which is a small village containing some very pretty houses, seems to be a distributing point of lumber, for near the station we saw several large lumber yards.

We have now reached the terminus of the level plain of the Scioto Valley, and are on the divide between the Scioto and Hocking Rivers. The land is wet. The hills which rise from 25 to 100 feet above the railway level are mostly clothed with trees. The country becomes more picturesque.

At 5:15 P. M. we reached Lancaster, having been on the road 5 hours, 23 minutes.

Fairfield county is situated in the northern part of the Hocking Valley. It is bounded on the north by Licking county, on the east by Perry and Hocking counties, on the south by Hocking and Pickaway, and on the west by Pickaway and Franklin. The county was formed on December 9, 1800, by proclamation of Governor St. Clair, and was named from the beauty of its fair fields. The western and northern parts of the county present all the characteristic features of Central Ohio, i. e. : It is level or nearly so, and exceedingly fertile, the soil consisting of rich loam with a subsoil of clay; the middle and a part of the eastern portion is undulating, the soil good, consisting of a clayey loam mixed with vegetable mould; the southern part is very hilly and broken. The valleys among these hills are very attractive, not only for their fertility, but as "gems of land-. scape beauty."

Drainag-The northern townships, Walnut, Liberty, and Violet, are drained by Little Walnut creek, which empties into the Scioto in Pickaway county. The portions of Bloom, Amanda and Clear Creek townships, which lie on the western slope of the water-shed between Hocking and Scioto Rivers, are drained by streams flowing into the Scioto. The Hock-· ing River is, at Lancaster, not much of a stream, formed by the drainage. of Greenfield township; near the city, it receives the waters of Fetters, Baldwin and Pleasant runs, which rise in Pleasant township. The townships Richland and Rush Creek, are drained by Rush creek, which flows in a southerly direction into Marion township of Hocking county, thence westerly into Berne township, Fairfield county, and empties into the Hocking a little below Sugar Grove. Clear creek, which rises in Amanda township, flows through the northeast corner of Clear Creek township, and through nearly the center of Madison, and empties into the Hocking River in Hocking county.

LANCASTER, the county seat, is situated on the Hocking River and the Hocking Canal, lies twenty-eight miles southeast of Columbus, and